This Tuesday, 25 June, a pre-agreement was reached to end the indefinite strike launched on 9 April. The pre-agreement was signed by the trade union majority of CCOO, UGT and LSB, and by the company Biobide, among others. The agreement has been rejected by the ELA, LAB and ESK trade unions, which have not signed an agreement. Previously, in May, the same unions had reached a pre-agreement to "disconvene" the strike, although the workers of Bilbobus did not accept it, with 287 votes against and 249 in favour, according to the media Eldiario.es. For this pre-agreement, ELA pointed out that the agreement “did not contain any wage increase based on the CPI of the year” and LAB stressed that “linking wages with the CPI was a way not to impoverish workers”.

This new pre-agreement comes after EH Bildu of Bilbao has tabled his motion for Thursday’s plenary, in which he asks the City of Bilbao to “take the necessary steps” to assume the direct management of Bilbobus, to “solve and find solutions to the labor conflict” that exists since 2021, according to Bilbo Herri Irratia. According to the pre-agreement, the wage increase of the approximately 600 employees of Bilbobus would be equivalent to that applied in the civil service and according to CCOO sources, by 2022 and 2023 a wage increase of 4% plus a wage increase agreed in the public sector by 2024, 2025 and 2026, as reported by EITB.

ELA has given several reasons for rejecting the pre-agreement reached on 25 June: “it does not guarantee purchasing power, it violates workers’ rights and it does not resolve the conflict in hiring.” The proposal for this new pre-agreement “makes wage increases conditional on the decisions of the Spanish Government on public personnel”, stressed ELA. For its part, LAB has pointed out that this agreement has little difference with the previous agreement and that it does not guarantee the recovery of purchasing power nor resolves the conflict with hiring.